Thursday, 28 March 2013

Annual loving

All the other girls were lost in the world of Mizz and Just 17. And those Problem Pages. Involving sex, kissing with tongues and fancying your best friend's older brother, to name just a few. I seem to remember one of my friends reading a particular Just 17 problem page which featured a rude mishap with a Biro, but let's not go there.

So while just about every girl I knew was reading something in a teen mag to prepare them for future shenanigans (by the way, I pronounce this "Shen-on-eee-gon" as if I was French and posh), I was lost in the depths of Bunty. Cut out wardrobes and tales from the Four Marys. Get in.

It became an embarrassing habit but I couldn't give it up. Every week my dad would go to the corner shop, pick up his paper, my Bunty and my brother's Beano. And I would lock myself in my room to read it and didn't tell a soul outside the family.

So imagine my pleasure when I spotted this in the Scope cherry tree shop this week.

I tell you what, I always look out for Bunty annuals and never see them. This is the only one I've ever come across.

Please someone confess to also reading it, so I don't feel like a loon.

In other news, the husband and I have been having some pleasant times together while the kids are at school and pre-school. Good chats by the sea really do wonders for the soul.

Oh and I grabbed this from another cherry tree shop this week, 50p for another cute Peter and Jane Ladybird book to add to my collection.

Here is my friend and I, in the interval of our children's choir concert. We sang along (sometimes a bit too loud) and were gushing with pride at it all. She is a diamond and we are dragging our husbands out for a curry next week. They live a few streets away from us and apparently the curry house round the corner is amazing so I am really looking forward to a laugh and a quick stroll home!

So the kids have broken up for the Easter hols and on Sunday I can trough chocolate again after 6 weeks on Lent. Never again though, same weight as when I started!

To kickstart a lovely Easter, the ever so beautiful Ashley, she of the Country Rose blog fame, came over for lunch today. I got to squidge baby Arthur and the Prince got to romance Rose.

We first meet exactly a year ago with the two delightful Sarahs or Annaboo and Shabby, as they are better know. We normally all get together but this time I am seeing them all individually and then we shall reunite with chips and a coke on the beach.

12 months ago. FLOWN BY!

Ashley's two beauties and my clingy boy.

We had such a lovely afternoon, I got masses of Arthur cuddles and now I am clucking. A lot.

My parents are arriving tomorrow for four days. On Saturday they are babysitting as the husband and I are going to celebrate 17 years together. SEVENTEEN. I can't quite believe it. We celebrate our Snogging Anniversary properly, like we celebrate our wedding anniversary. I love him more than Bunty and Bon Jovi (ish with the latter).

Dressing up a few years ago

My heart still skips a beat when he returns from work - although that's probably because I often mistake him for a burglar when I hear him crash through the door at 2am from his night shift .......

YOU ARE TOO FUNNY....how your "heart skips a beat" because you have mistaken him for a burglar...oh Gem, YOU are a gem, a diamond.

You also look fab as a platinum blond! I on the other hand, do not. I tried a wig once but good heavens, I just looked like a Mexican with a platinum blond wig! teehee.....well, that's what I am! But silver hair is setting in on my temples, and I am actually excited about it. It will be the first time in my life I will have light hair!

Darlin' Gem, we did not have these sweet books out here to read, but we did have our own American version. But I too, and I will FESS UP, while the other tweens were experimenting and doddling in things young gals ought not do, I was still playing with my dolls. I was still reading enchanting fairytales, and I am glad to have discovered that my dear husband did too.

You are wonderful. Fun to read, lovely to watch, a wonderful blogging pal. WATCH OUT for that Easter bunny; I look forward to listening to the SHENANIGANS at the Gem household...and I am sure there will be many!

So funny, I didn't read Bunty I think it was Judy every week for me! Enjoy your anniversary night out tonight & I love that you've had walks and chats on the beach - my husband is still the person I most enjoy chatting to! Happy Easter. x

I flaming loved Bunty and love the fact that you too still read it when everyone else had moved on. I remember clearly the feeling of wanting to be like my friends but really enjoying it still. I had forgotten all about that!How lovely that you live near enough to hang out with fellow bloggers, I am yet to find anyone close to the Hudds.Lovely beach picture making me long for the sea and holidays,Nelly xxx

I am another closet Bunty magazine lover!!! Indeed one or two of my schoolfriends had moved on, not only to proper teen magazines, but actually to having babies themselves, while I was still on the 'Bunty'!!!! But then I did go to a very rough school ;-)Congrats on 17 years together.

Oh how lovely it was to see your comment late last night, but I had to get some sleep in order to properly respond! WOW was I tired...

Yes, that is me in the little blue coat, in 1965, at our famous, DISNEYLAND. I grew up in Los Angeles where it was (and still is) a very dangerous place. Gunshots were part of the evening show (lots of GANG ACTIVITY) and my parents tried their best to protect me in the middle of the violence that escalated between cultures in the 1960s. But it makes for interesting research into my life that I hope to put down in memoir form, a sort of inspirational collection for Latina women or any woman for that matter.

I would LOVE to see your version of "Where I'm From." Just follow the link at the end of my post and there is a template you can at least start off with and tweak it as you wish. I bet yours will be fabulous, filled with many facets of the English life. PLEASE TRY IT! LOVE, Anita

Me, Myself & I

I am a freelance writer and proof reader as well as a mum to three children - two girls and a boy. When I am not glued to my laptop, tackling washing or sorting out squabbles, I love finding a bargain. Therefore I love charity shops, jumble sales, NCT sales, garage sales and those little sales that cute kids in quaint villages hold outside their house, and you feel compelled to buy something, even if it is just some old tat. Car boot sales don't hold the key to my heart as much, but I think that's purely down to the fact I once got sun stroke at one...